I’m Buying a Car Because of Ron Burgundy?

The character created by comedian Will Ferrell and used as the spokesman for the 2014 Dodge Durango has increased online shopping for the crossover.

Sales of the re-engineered Durango climbed 59% in October to 5,120 units and are up 50% for the year. Edmunds.com analyst Michelle Krebs said shopping for the Durango “soared on Edmunds.com after the ads launched” on Oct. 5.

If you have yet to partake in the splendor that is Ron Burgundy moving Dodge Durangos, click here and prepare to avoid any work getting done for the following ten minutes or so.

Now, of course there is something here that Americans ought to be a little ashamed of. Increasingly, we’re a superficial bunch. Like kittens when a ball of yarn rolls by, or Jesse Pinkman high on meth at a Pink Floyd laser-light show, far too many of us are far too easily distracted and amused by inconsequential stimuli.

But I say good for Dodge. It’s the free market at work. Comedy, when done properly, can move weight. Whether we’re talking about products or politics (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Onion, etc.), if you can make ‘em laugh, you’ve got a potential customer for life. And people remember the funny kid they grew up with, not the one who had the best GPA or best ideas for school projects. I’m not saying it should be that way. But it is that way.

Conservatives and libertarians—the fracturing center-right coalition in America—would do well to consider such realities every once in a while. I’m not talking about predictable, ham-fisted ideas like Fox News’s horrifically unfunny 1/2 Hour News Hour (2007). And I’m not talking about calling in Dennis Miller to bail out every gathering of Republicans that needs a few laughs. All I’m saying is that liberals are not the only funny, entertaining people in this country. And progressive voices like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart don’t speak for all entertainers.

The problem is that when someone like an Adam Carolla—for my money, one of the most entertaining and creative comedic minds around—is out doing yeoman’s work on his podcast and at live shows, communicating the value of hard work and the pitfalls of an ever-increasing nanny state, the best idea anyone on the center-right has is to slap him on a weekly segment of The O’Reilly Factor so Bill can step on Adam’s jokes and explain to Mother Maybelle in Cedar Rapids why what Carolla just said was funny.

I fully understand that Adam operates as a blue comic for the most part (thus turning off many religious folks on the right), and I’m not here to convince anyone that Carolla can be the “John Galt” who leads us all to economic freedom and limited government, but listen to this exchange between The Ace Man and California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, and try to tell me you’ve ever heard any conservative (politician or pundit) do a better job of exposing the shallow, hypocritical nature of modern progressive liberalism!

If I was running the RNC or part of an organization focused on reaching new, younger demographics, my first order of business would be to recruit the likes of an Adam Carolla to help me with the messaging and branding of core conservative principles.

Our side has Rolls Royce ideas and we’re packaging them like they’re a used bike someone’s dad ran over in the driveway.

(By the way pops, you still owe me a new bike from the great Chevy Suburban incident of 1996. Make mine a Dyno.)

The American Spectator Foundation is the 501(c)(3) organization responsible for publishing The American Spectator magazine and training aspiring journalists who espouse traditional American values. Your contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Each donor receives a year-end summary of their giving for tax purposes.